After what seemed like eternity, they finally reached the hospital. Joe sprinted towards the front desk leaving Brosenthal and the others to go park. ‘Here. To. See. Lauren Lopez.’ Joe panted gasping for breath. ‘Certainly.’ The nice blonde smiled as she checked the computer. ‘The doctors are just doing a few tests now, I will let him know you are here, and he will call you when you can see her.’ The lady gestured towards the waiting area. ‘Thanks’ he mumbled and sat down with his head in his hands. The StarKids came in and spotted Joe. They all sat down in the waiting room, silently. ‘What did they say?’ Meredith asked tangling her hands with Brian Holden’s. Joe sighed. ‘That the doctors are running tests and that they will tell us when we can see her.’ Joe tried to keep his voice level. Meredith nodded remaining silent. They could all see how much this was hurting him.
1 hour later.
A tall, pretty brunette with a white lab coat and a clip board walked into the waiting room. ‘Um… Mr. Darren Criss?’ Joe sprang up and marched over to her
‘Are you Mr. Criss?’ she asked.
'No he’s not, I am’ Darren was standing next to him. ‘Is Lauren okay?’
She beamed, recognising him from Glee. ‘We were able to stop the bleeding, but she is not yet conscious.’ The lady checked her board ‘she has deep bruising along her ribcage and several other breaks and injuries. She is in room 409 which is 4th floor, 10th door on your left. I can let no more than four people in at any one time but the rest of you can wait in the special waiting room up there.’
‘Thank-you.’ Walker ran towards the stairs
‘Joe, there’s a lif-‘Dylan tried to explain but Joe was already up the stairs heading towards his unconscious best friend. When Joe reached the room, the StarKids were already there having taken the lift instead of 4 flights of stairs. ‘10th door to your left… 5th’ Joe whispered with what breath he had left as he went past the rooms all identical to each other ‘7th… 8th…. 9th…’ Joe stood in the doorway of the sterile white room with a single white bed that he could just see passed Meredith, Brian, Darren and Joe Moses as they were crowded around the small bed.
Joe coughed letting everyone know he was standing there. ‘Walker. Do you want to see her now?’ Moses walked out of the room knowing the answer and set off to find some decent coffee. Walker walked over to the bed. She looked so broken. Her usually rosy cheeks were now a ghostly white, her hair matted with blood from cuts in her head, her face and body covered in bruises and cuts. Tubes connected to big machines ran in and out of her small body.
Joe felt his heart break, how could this happen? Why to her? Out of anyone in the world, anyone he knew, why did it have to be his beautiful best friend? The one that he loved and she didn’t even know yet. He was planning on tearing her away from the rest of the group and telling her tonight, he even planned what he was going to say. Joe’s vision became blurry as tears started flowing out of his cobalt blue eyes. Remembering that his friends were there he quickly wiped them away and looked up at them.
‘Come on guys, let’s give the man some privacy’ Brian said taking Meredith’s hand
‘no.’ Joe said quietly, ‘no. she’s your friend too, you have the right to be here.’ Brian nodded knowing the fact really was that Joe didn’t want to be alone.
Joe walked over to the left side of the bed and sat in the brown leather chair beside and grabbed Lauren’s hand, gently stroking it. ‘Hey there, big girl. How are you holding up?’ Joe frowned he knew that was a stupid line considering they were in a hospital and she was unconscious. At this moment Julia along with the rest of the StarKids came in. ‘Okay, so I just spoke to the doctor, and we can have two people stay overnight so who is it going to be?’
‘Me.’ Joe choked not taking his eyes off Lauren ‘I’m not leaving her side until she walks out of this hospital with me.’ Julia nodded with a knowing smile.
‘Okay, walks. So who will stay with Joe?’ No one said anything, they all wanted to stay and they didn’t want to sound selfish.
‘I think Joey should. To her, he’s a big brother.’ Walker looked up at Joey who also had tears in his eyes as he simply nodded.
‘Alright that’s settled then.’ Julia sounded slightly disappointed that she won’t be staying but she knew that it was for the best that these two were with her. ‘I will drop in tomorrow morning before work to drop off some of her things, okay?’ the two nodded. They said goodbye to their friends and sat down in the two identical seats on either side of Lauren.
